Monday, February 9, 2009

Lorcaserin Study and other info

Remember Fen-Phen? This drug combo swept the nation many years ago and helped a lot of people lose weight. Unfortunately, it had a nasty side effect. In 2-5% of people, they developed incurable heart valve problems and the drug was recalled. Twelve years later, they are in the final stages of a new "Fen-Phen" but one that supposedly doesn't cause the heart problems. It's a drug called Lorcaserin.

I found a local Lorcaserin one-year weight loss study. You have to be a certain amount overweight, Type II diabetic, and on oral medication for blood sugar control. They sent me all of the paperwork and disclosures and I read through it. There was something about male lab rats developing brain tumors at 1000% times the recommended dose, blah, blah, blah. I figured since I wasn't a male lab rat, sign me up.

Today I went in for my testing. I am a perfect candidate in every way. Except one. My blood sugars are in too good of control. It seems they want people that have been neglecting their diabetes to show that in diabetic patients you can not only lose weight, but it can improve your blood sugars as well. I got a free ECG out of it. My ticker is in great shape (good to know since I've been testing it a bit lately). The good news is my diabetes is completely under control. The bad news is I'll have to loose the next 97 pounds the good old fashioned way. That's ok, with my luck I would have gotten the placebo sugar pill assigned to me anyway.

In other updates, I got a new pair of shoes over the weekend. I don't think they'll work out either. I've decided the arches are too far back in the shoe. But if a got a smaller shoe to fit the arches they'd be too small in the toe. I think this was the problem with the last shoe too. So, I'll be looking for another pair...AGAIN. I talked to my Dad today. He's run eight marathons and informs me I inherited my lovely hooves from him and the only shoes he can run in are Asics Gel Nimbus. So, I'll try those soon and see how they work.

The running store also lets you try running socks with the shoes so I tried out several and decided on some think cushion Thurlos socks. Those I'm happy with. If only shoes were so easy.

2 comments:

I was on Lorcaserin for 3 months. It definitely helped with appetite control but I was feeling too dizzy and too scared of the heart problems that were possible, so I stopped it. I think it will be a great drug if no heart problems and it gets approved by the FDA.

Sorry that you're not a perfect candidate for the medicine, but its good to know your sugar levels aren't crazy and that you have a good heart!

I have heard some good things, as well as some bad things about Alli. I don't know if it's something you'd be interested in.

And I've always heard a ton of commercials about this product: http://www.ultra90.com/weightloss/ultra90.aspx I see it's on sale right now. If I had the money, I'd get some and use it after the baby is here. I know I won't feel like being that active after the c/s, but if it helped it would be great!